Foreign Assistance Call-in Event: S. 1524

An immediate call-in action From Bread for the World. NOTE: Sens Durbin and Burris are not yet co-sponsors!
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We need 25 senators to cosponsor S. 1524, the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act, when the Senate begins discussing it on September 22.

Please call your senators at 1-800-826-3688 before Tuesday, September 22, and urge him/her to cosponsor S. 1524.

S. 1524 is a bipartisan bill which lays out several initial and important reforms of the U.S. foreign assistance system. If your senator is not a cosponsor please ask for cosponsorship. If your senator is already a cosponsor, please call and thank him/her for supporting this important legislation.

S. 1524 was introduced in August by John Kerry (D-MA), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Richard Lugar (R-IN), ranking member, along with Bob Corker (R-TN), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Jim Risch (R-ID). We need to have at least 25 cosponsors when they meet on Sept. 22. Currently, the bill has 10 cosponsors.

S. 1524 complements H.R. 2139, the Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act, introduced in the House in April. (Thanks to your support, we now have more than 100 cosponsors for the House bill). These two bills are key to the success of our 2009 Offering of Letters which urges Congress and the administration to reform U.S. foreign assistance.

While not identical, the Senate and House bills would begin the reform process. S. 1524 will strengthen the badly decimated U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and make all our foreign aid programs more accountable and transparent.


Message and Key Points:

Your main message should be: Please cosponsor S. 1524, the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act.

You can explain your message further by adding either or both of these points:

-S. 1524 is a strong building block to make our nation’s foreign assistance more effective and accountable. We need you to cosponsor the bill.
-S. 1524 focuses on rebuilding the policy, planning, and evaluation capacity of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID.) It stresses that U.S. policy should be to promote global development, good governance, and the reduction of poverty and hunger.

For more info, visit www.bread.org. Thank you for your support!